Status Updates From Leavenworth Seven: The Dead...

Besides some of the issues with the writing style of the author, it's fun to read about an area my family and I have lived in and around. From travelling Biddle Blvd, living a block from Augur Ave., frequenting Nortonville, to doing search and rescue training at the closed Menninger's Sanatorium in Topeka, I'm enjoying the (somewhat fragmented) history.

This has been in my TBR awhile because my grandmother was one of the hostages. She’s gone now but I have a cassette tape of her retelling the story of what happened. I need to transcribe that and get it preserved for history. I know the book THE HOT HOUSE also mentions this prison break but it’s one of many similar stories.

The bureau’s policy that before an inmate could be paroled he had to be tested and cleared of syphilis led to accusations that the institution’s doctor was charging $10 and up (dependent upon the inmate’s monetary worth) for a clean bill of health.